Tech

Garmin is bringing 4G LTE to the wrist with the all new vívoactive 3 Music – connected by Verizon . This new version of the vívoactive GPS smartwatch gives users a 24-7 connection to text messages, music downloads, and “incident detection” without having a phone along. As if that’s not all, the watch features five day battery life, Garmin Pay, and can be worn swimming or in the shower. Here’s how they’re pitching it:

“The vívoactive 3 Music with 4G LTE connectivity gives you everything you need from your phone – safety features, text messaging and the ability to download and listen to music – now on your watch, so customers can leave their phones behind with confidence,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. “Designed for customers who lead an active lifestyle, we’re excited to introduce these new safety and communication features to the Verizon-connected vívoactive 3 Music to give added peace of mind on the go, so leaving your phone at home can be a choice instead of a cause for panic.”

We’re kind of hoping they bring this same functionality to the Edge 520. How epic would that be? Fingers crossed. For the official word from Garmin, please follow the jump.

Dirt jumping wizard Brandon Semenuk has joined the Bonx team. What is Bonx? We wondered the same thing. It’s apparently a Bluetooth earpiece that “enables cellular network-based group communication with up to 10 users anywhere in the world.” Kind of like an always-on conference call of rad, apparently.

“I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to work with BONX,” says Semenuk. “To be a part of an innovative outdoor tech brand is awesome. The BONX products will be a valuable asset for my endeavors in both mountain biking and rally. It’s also a great crew, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities with the product.”

The battle for your active wrist heated up a little today as Suunto announced that they’ve added a barometer to their Spartan Sport Wrist HR GPS multisport watch. The Spartan Sport, which competes directly with Garmin’s fenix line of watches, also got a battery life bump. We’d still choose the fenix given the choice, however it’s good to see that Suunto hasn’t given up the fight yet. For cyclists who’ve had enough of Garmin this watch is a good choice. For the official word from Suunto (including all the details) please follow the jump.[click to continue…]

iShoxs, the German manufacturer of seriously burly looking action cam mounts and accessories is brining their products to the USA and will begin shipping product this month (June 2017).

iShoxs high-end mounts are designed to clamp, stick or latch onto all different types of outdoor gear and endure the extreme conditions outdoor athletes can encounter on a daily basis. All iShoxs components and accessories are designed to integrate with one another, allowing users to mount any POV camera in different configurations to create unique perspectives and standout footage.

For the official word from iShoxs, please follow the jump, or click here for their website.

For 2017 Garmin and turned up their team sponsorship and now officially sponsors five world tour teams and four mountain biking teams. Which teams exactly? Here you go: Cannondale-Drapac Pro, Movistar, Astana Pro Team, FDJ Pro Team and Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka. On the mountain bike side they’ve got Trek Factory Racing, CLIF Pro Team, CUBE Action Team, and Scott-SRAM.

“Garmin started sponsoring professional cycling teams nearly a decade ago, and we are excited to continue our commitment to the sport,” said Jon Cassat, Garmin vice president of communications. “As a leader in cycling technology, we are proud to provide the teams with top- of-the-line products – from GPS bike computers to cycling awareness accessories and multisport GPS watches – for training, racing and adventure in between.”

Garmin will be outfitting the teams with Edge cycling computers, Varia radar-equipped tail lights, plus Forerunner and Fenix GPS smartwatches all around. Kind of makes us want to get on a world pro team, you know, for the smart watches. . . right?

We always hoped the next major advance at Strava would be better, easier ways to message and communicate with people we follow (Strava Messenger?), instead Strava is rolling out what they are calling Beta Clubs. On the surface these “clubs” appears to be nothing more than a news providers. Here’s how Strava is over pitching it:

The Beta Clubs mark the first time that content other than an activity could show up in your feed, which is a big step toward serving every need of the athlete. That’s an ambitious goal, and no doubt we’ll be learning and iterating along the way. But we’re up for the challenge, and these Beta Clubs will help lead the way. Only these clubs can post for now because we trust them to be awesome — they are going to show us and the rest of the Strava community what it means to run a great club. They’ll set the standard, and it won’t be long before we open the ability to post content to all clubs and athletes.

The Beta Clubs include popular media, retailers, and product brands Like Bicycling Magazine, Bike Radar, Canyon Bicycles, USA Cycling, Rapha, Clif, and Competitive Cyclist (that’s just seven of the twenty-seven brands listed). Users can “join” the clubs they want to get news from. Then each time the companies blast out “news” it will show up in the feed between rides.

While getting news from brands we care about might be interesting, this really looks more like a revenue generation play by Strava that will eventually lead to feeds clogged with irrelevant advertising. We sincerely hope this doesn’t happen, because we really like Strava. It is our Facebook. And if it becomes as annoying as Facebook we’ll be forced to purge it from our lives and that would be a serious bummer.

How do you feel about the new Beta Clubs? Let us know in the comments.

GoPro founder Nick Woodman unpacked a drone load of product today (including the companies long-awaited attempt to save the company, the Karma drone) during a press conference at Squaw Valley Resort, California. the list includes a new line of Hero5 cameras and a cloud-based software package designed to make accessing GoPro huge files much easier.

“With these new products, we’re delivering on our promise to make it easy to capture and share engaging stories,” said Woodman. “HERO5’s ability to auto-upload photos and videos to a GoPro Plus account dramatically simplifies mobile, on-the-go editing, sharing and enjoyment. This is a game-changing experience that we will continue to build upon.” Woodman adds, “We’re stoked to launch Karma and show how much more it is than a drone. Karma packs Hollywood-caliber aerial, handheld and gear-mounted image stabilization into a backpack for $799. It’s so easy to use, a beginner can have fun straight away.”

This GoPro Karma will certainly integrate well with GoPro’s line of cameras and looks to be great for people who like getting aerial shots, and the move to the cloud is a step in the right direction as GoPro looks for ways to move past hardware into the digital services business. We just hope the battery lasts longer than 10 minutes. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. For the official word from GoPro, please follow the jump.

Garmin’s top-of-the-line multi-sport watch the fēnix 3 just got a high fashion sibling that looks more a Breitling Chronliner and less like a bloated Forerunner. Sure, the new fēnix Chronos still does all the cycling things that the fenix does. It can pair with your ANT+ power meter, cadence/speed sensors, and heart rate monitor and upload it live to Strava (when paired with a smartphone). It also keeps track of routes,compassing, altimeter, and temperature changes, but this one comes in titanium, steel, and steel with a vintange leather band.

“High-end design meets top-tier performance with fēnix Chronos,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “With luxurious materials and trusted Garmin multisport technology, fēnix Chronos is a necessary timepiece for anyone who wants to remain stylish through all of life’s adventures – whether its hiking through mountains, training for a race, or heading to a formal event.”

As you might have guessed all this fancy comes at a price. The fēnix Chronos titanium with titanium band will cost $1,500 (more than twice the cost of the previous top of the line fēnix 3); fēnix Chronos steel with stainless steel band $1000; and fēnix Chronos steel with leather band will cost $900. The price does include a silicone sport band for when you want to get it sweaty.

We’ve called the fēnix 3 one of the best bike computers you can wear on your wrist, and Chronos looks even better. For the official word from Garmin, follow the jump.

In the latest iOS update to their cycling and running tracking app (version 4.18), Strava has announced that they will no longer support several devices that have worked well with the app in the past saying:

Sadly, we are no longer supporting the following devices: Magellan Echo, Timex Run x50+, Wahoo RFLKT/RLFKT+. Please contact us with questions by going to FAQ & Support in the app.

According to Strava support, users of the RFLKT can still use their devices with Wahoo’s fitness app and then upload to Strava. User of the other devices are out of luck.

“As the Strava app evolves, we continue to assess the work needed to support all the various accessories, sensors, watches and operating systems,” said a Strava representative. “Sometimes, it is necessary to cease supporting some devices so we can redirect those development resources elsewhere. Thank you for understanding, and please reach out to our support team directly with questions and feedback.

Guess the bottom line is, if you’re using any of these devices it might be time to upgrade to something else. . . maybe a Garmin 735xt for instance? If not, then you probably shouldn’t hit the update button.